Day: December 15, 2013

Gone are the birds, the sounds of leaves, the laughter of childrenplaying in the light-long day.Windows are closed…Silence pervades.Thus it is that bells and chimes have special power to awaken the soul delighting the ear in the silence, even as candles bring joy to the eye in the darkness.

Be careful of enemy noises seeking to turn the attention to the outer, the frenetic, the hastenings for things and plans.We’re not meant to despise the gifts and even the shopping.Just be attentive to those bells and gentle chimes yhat call to inwardness, to quiet, to a space that is hedged about by the Angel of the Lord so that there can be announced to your heart as to Mary’s:

“You will conceive in your womband bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”Luke 1:31

Alphabytes are object meditations that move through the alphabet two times in the course of the fifty-two weeks in the year. “Chimes” introduces the Third Week in Advent: winter in the north, summer in the south.To view all of them, see the menu option Alphabytes

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Click or touch “Firestarter” To listen to Nick read the one-minute introduction.

Juan Fernández de Navarrete – “St John the Baptist in the Prison” 1565-70
Oil on canvas, 80 x 72 cmThe Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Winter’s cold holds trees captive, wrenching away all evidence of life. Trees that once swayed with summer songs are now touched and come to a silent, stark stillness.

John the Baptist, captive in prison, is also cut off from the evidences of the life-giving presence in Jesus. John begins to doubt, longing for a release from the torturing question, which throws him this way and that: “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Does doubt dangle questions before you as well? The words that reassured John will do the same for you with the clarity of bells making these dark nights of the year echo with a summoning call to worship and to joy. Listen in the silence to the sounds of saving grace that sweep across your silent, emptied soul.

This is the third of four weeks in Advent, Year A.See “Solar and Sacred Seasons” in the menu above. Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from The Revised Common Lectionary. Year A is dedicated to the Gospel ofLuke.